Retailers Prepare for Hurricane Sandy

Oct 26, 2012

Retailers in the Northeast were preparing for a busy weekend of stock-up shopping as Hurricane Sandy approached.

The massive storm was expected to make landfall somewhere between Delaware and Long Island on Monday. Supermarket operators on Friday said they were sending deliveries to stores to make sure items like bottled water, milk, ice, bread and batteries were on hand for customers.

“We understand that weather conditions are expected to be severe, so we are doing everything we can to ensure that our customers have what they need to be prepared in advance of the storm,” said Karen Meleta, a spokeswoman for Keasbey, N.J.-based Wakefern[3], in a statement issued by the company’s PriceRite banner.

Other chains in the region were getting the word out to customers via social media like Twitter and Facebook. New York-based FreshDirect, which recently expanded service to Philadelphia, used Twitter to urge customers to reschedule any deliveries they had planned for Monday through Wednesday.

Several retailers were directing customers to their Facebook pages for updates on potential store closings, and tweeting links to weather information websites.